Media devices such as set-top boxes, DVD players and digital video recorders are connected to televisions in many households. A media device may be controlled via a remote control device. Conventional remote control devices may have buttons to choose commands to control the media device. Remote control devices typically communicate with the media device using infrared communication or radio frequency communication. Advances in voice recognition technology may allow for media devices to additionally be controlled via user spoken commands.
During use, media devices may display advertisements. In some media devices, these advertisements are general and may or may not be appropriate to the users watching. In other media devices, the programs that are viewed by the users are used to create a profile for the user that can select advertisements based on the users' viewing habits. In other media devices, users may be asked to create a profile. The user would be asked questions to determine preferences and the user's answers would be saved in the profile. The user profiles would then be used to select specific advertisements or content suggestions that are targeted to that user based on that user's profile.
Conventional methods for creating a user profile are often intrusive and require a user to answer questions the user may find to be inconvenient or may be unwilling to answer truthfully. A user of such a device may find the questions to get in the way of simple use of the device. A user also may not be completely honest when answer the questions if they are trying to get through the questions quickly or are embarrassed by an honest answer. User profiles with flawed or incomplete information may result in advertisements or content suggestions that are targeted toward the user profile that are not of interest to the user.
What is needed is a media device that may be controlled via user spoken commands and can create user profiles, for use in targeting advertisements or suggesting content, without inconveniencing the user with a lengthy questionnaire.